First Batch In Bottles, Waiting for it to... be good?

[ThunderPanda]

I have my first batch all in bottles now. It had a OG of about 1.8, let it ferment all the way to 1.000, (took a couple weeks) racked, let it sit for a day, racked again, added a can of apple juice concentrate per gallon and some potassium sorbate, then bottled.

That was about four days ago, tried a bottle today just to see how it was going. It was drinkable, though certainly not good. It was fairly yeasty and not that appley at all. I feel that it will taste more appley after staying in the bottles for at least a few more weeks, and as for the yeast, I think I will just let my next batch sit in secondary for a whole lot longer. Probably weeks instead of days. Lesson learned!

I am hopeful that it will still become at least half-decent in time. But more than that I am excited for my next batch, which I have already started, this time with nottingham yeast instead of a champagne yeast. Yay for progress!

 

[Kayos]

Champagne yeast = super dry and not very "appley". FG 1.00 = super dry and not very "appley". Try using some cider yeast from White Labs or even some white wine yeast to get a little more apple flavor next time. Think about it like this...does champagne taste like grape juice? Another way to get more apple flavor is to stop the fermentation with an additive when you like where the flavor is. Check it out at the HBS.

 

[wildman]

Dry cider needs to age all winter. Just because you back sweetened it won't hide that.